A decision to go against your manager at work

Talk about a moment when you had to make a decision to go against your manager at work.

You should say:

what your decision was about

why you had to make the decision

how you felt after that

and explain what the outcome of this was.

[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you're going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]

Model Answer 1:
I am an undergraduate student and a part-time worker at a local coffee shop. I always try to abide by the rules and regulations of the shop but recently I disobeyed the order from my manager. I am happy to have a chance of describing the event here.

I decided not to take the bill from a customer based on some special circumstances. But it was against the norms of the shop. Each of the clients had to pay their own bills and we took cash only. I decided not to take the bill as the customer had no money with him. He told me that he had left his wallet at home. So, he asked me if there are any chances to pay the bill later. Though there are no such practices, I decided to allow him. In fact, I knew him for long and wanted to do him this favour as he was really in distress.

When I went him with his bill, he searched his pocket and found the wallet was missing. Later, he made a phone call to his home and became assured that it was not a pickpocket rather he left the wallet at home amid his rush. So, he benevolently asked me to do this favour. Initially, I was perplexed what to do in such situation. I never experienced such situations before. So, I could not decide what to do. But later, I thought that this was really a troublesome situation for the gentleman. I had chances to create a scene there and I would have done that if the man was someone else other than him. He was a regular customer and often came to the shop to take coffee and snacks. So, I decided to allow him the chance of paying later though credit is not allowed by the authority.

When the man was told that it was okay to pay later, he felt relieved. In fact, it was a kind of relief from getting disgraced by the authority. So, I felt a sense of deep satisfaction inside my mind. He was also grateful and pledged to pay the bill as soon as possible for him. But the positive feelings that I felt inside was priceless. I have never felt so good before. It was a kind of good deed for me. So, I praised myself highly marking this event. The man also showed his gratitude to me later when he came back to pay the bill. But it was the manager who could not feel good at this. In fact, he was the man of a cruel nature. And he took every cent from the clients and did not allow any credits to them.

This was an exciting event for me. But I was worried inside lest I lose my job for disobeying the manager. The manager asked the man to deposit something valuable with him and the deposited item will be returned when he pays the money. I interfered in the issue as the amount was a small one. I politely asked the manager to let the man go and not to create any trouble. Also, I said that we should believe people and it was a kind of investment that will increase our reputation in the market. Finally, everything went fine. The man paid the due amount and praised me. On the other side, the manager was also happy with the event when he got paid.